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The major criticism of the North America versus World format was that Canadians still represented the majority of the NHL players, and it clearly showed in the team selection: the 49th game only saw five Americans as part of the North America roster, and many notable greats were left off the all-star ballot simply as there were too many names to choose from. Some pundits even claimed that a second competitive North American all-star team could have been made from players that were not invited.

Among the more pronounced comments came from last year's winning coach Ken Hitchcock, who came off his first ever all-star game victory at any level of hockey (he had been 0–11 before): he wished that perhaps the game could be held in Europe so that the World team would have a "home game".